


In Distress

by LadyYueh



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-02
Updated: 2010-10-02
Packaged: 2017-10-12 08:54:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/123122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyYueh/pseuds/LadyYueh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel misses Dean's phone calls. There's also a swamp and a turtle princess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Distress

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AmethystShard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmethystShard/gifts).



> For castielfest on LJ. amethystshard's prompt: "Bamf!Cas rescuing Dean" with a dash of case-fic thrown in.

"You have four unheard messages. First unheard message:"

 _Hey, Cas. It's me—ah look I'm in…fuck, I'm in a swamp in Florida and the only identifying marks I've got are a tree and another tree. Meet me in an hour at my hotel, The Snapping Gator. Room 4. BEEP!_

"End of message. To delete this message press seven. Next message."

 _Cas, I'm stuck in this goddamned swamp and you're not answering my calls. What gives, man? You're not tied up or anything, are you? And you know I mean that literally. Shit. That better not be the case. Unless some hot thing has you tied up to do wicked things with. Otherwise, I have enough on my plate trying to wade through this pit and hoping that there really aren't any gators—BEEP._

"Next message."

 _Fucking voicemail. Fucking research. I forgot how much I hate doing solo research, Cas. Don't remember it being so goddamned boring and I'm pretty sure I missed something. Couple of kids from the surrounding towns going missing and some creepy shit going down with the swamp lately. No brainer, right? 'Cept I haven't got a clue what the hell is causing it. BEEP._

"Next message."

 _Shit, I hope you're getting this. Sun's going down. I'm gonna try and find a defensible place to hunker down for the night. My phone's barely half-charged, so I'm not calling unless it's an emergency and if it is, I guess I better hope you pick up before I'm something's nummy dinner…Cas, if you wanna call me back, you need to make it soon._

"End of messages."

\----

Castiel stalked the bright-lit streets of Tokyo with masses of people rushing to and fro, dragging him along, like a leaf led by the energetic wind.

Castiel knew that despite the amount of tourists in the city, he stood out. Even the most oblivious pedestrian avoided brushing against him in the bustle. Castiel felt…he felt. There was something disquieting about being unable to reach out to his brothers and sisters, to be cut off from his home and all that was familiar to him. Every place on Earth was foreign to him.

Connection. Every being craved it, he thought. Even rebellious angels on a lonely quest to find the Father.

He reached into his pockets, brought out the cell phone that Dean had tossed at him at their last meeting. He might have called Dean, simply to tell him that Tokyo had not yielded any results. And that neither had: al-Jumhūrīyah al-Lubnānīyah, where a Muslim child had looked upon him with pity and offered him the gift of water; within one of the unexcavated chambers of Tlachihualtepetl, a place heavy with lost memories and absent of light ; Hangzhou, where an ancient old woman had seen him and smiled, but did not break her decades old vow of silence to answer his questions; greeting the hot sun from atop the ancient ziggurats, but finding no trace of the Father's divine presence ; gazing at the devatas of Angkor Wat for hours, looking to rediscover that sense of the celestial that had captured him at first sight; the Bodi tree, full of life and power, seeming to glow in the illuminating rays of the morning sun; the omphalos points, places of ancient, dormant power; the heart of the Amazon, pristine, almost wholly untouched by humanity's hand since the dawn of its creation.

Castiel was systematically travelling to any and every place of power and religious significance and finding not a trace nor sign of his Father. He would have liked to share the places with Dean, he thought. Dean, who was surely missing connection like Castiel was since he was also separated from his brother. Sharing things, he'd come to learn, forged bonds, joining beings in ever-tightening links as they strengthened their regard and care for each other. With that thought in mind, Castiel pressed the number 2, only to find that the screen did not light, no sound issued forth, the device was inactive.

It was then that Castiel remembered that phones such as these needed their power sources recharged regularly and that Dean had given him the means with which to do so.

Castiel disappeared from the streets of Tokyo while in the midst of a dense crowd. Not a one noticed.

\----

Castiel resisted the urge to do something dire to the small collection of plastic in his palm. How humanity could envision something so useful and make it maddening was beyond him.

He'd called Dean first, but the only answer was the voice telling him to leave a message.

The increasingly anxious messages that Dean had sent him were at least a day old. He considered it divine providence that he had been inspired to contact Dean when he had, else he feared he might not have checked his phone for quite some time.

Once he'd heard the location Dean had set for them to meet, he'd rushed to it as quickly as his wings could take him. He found an empty bed and no sign of Dean anywhere on the motel's premises.

Dean's beloved Impala was nowhere to be found either.

It was time, Castiel believed, to call Sam. He would have if he'd had Sam's number. He didn't wonder if Dean had called Sam for help; knowing Dean's temperament, he wouldn't.

Apparently, it was up to Castiel to save Dean Winchester from himself. Again.

\----

The library was small and almost entirely empty, but without Sam to conduct research Dean would have surely used this place to find what he was hunting.

He found a woman, small with white hair and the shuffle of old age, amongst the bookcases, directing a young woman in proper cataloguing.

They both looked surprised when they realized he was there.

"Another tourist in my library? Glad to see there will always be people that value a good book over the computer screen," the older said. "How can I help you?"

"This other tourist," Castiel started. "I believe he is my friend. He's gone missing."

Looking at their shocked faces, he thought that Dean's advice to lie might apply to the situation.

"Yes, I believe he's behaved as immaturely as he always does and taken his brother's dare to spend the night in the swamp—" Castiel halted in his explanation at their gasps and the sight of fear on their faces.

"Oh, well. Boy will be boys! And that one was a rascal if I ever saw one. Your friend's a big boy, I'm sure he'll come out of the swamp soon and be glad to be back in civilization," the old woman said, dismissing the idea of panic or worry as she shuffled past him.

Her companion looked at Castiel with wide, scared eyes before turning back to her task.

"You know something. About the swamp," Castiel declared.

The girl startled, the book in her grasp fell to the floor, but she neither bent to pick it up nor did she turn to look at him.

"You must tell me. My friend is in danger," Castiel demanded with the remains of the authority he'd once had.

"He was looking up stuff about the swamp; its history and all the people that have gone missing. That's—there were a lot of children. If he went into the swamp he'd have gone in where that little boy, Nicky Alvarado went missing. I hope you find him," she said as she fled in her mentor's footsteps without bothering to complete her task.

\----

Even with his weakening powers, Castiel knew he should have come to the swamp first as soon as he stepped into it.

There was a center of energy to the west, but not that of any angel or demon. Dean, he thought with certainty, would no doubt be found there as he was always in the midst of trouble. Moving towards it, Castiel could see the difference in the surrounding vegetation, becoming increasingly wild and forbidding the closer he came to its source of influence. He could see why the townspeople would be afraid of this place. He was only surprised that they had not banded together to destroy this place, as humans were wont to do with the things they feared.

The sun was gone from the sky and the sounds of nature were silent. There was only the faint light of stars on a moonless night and the sound of the wind speaking through the movement of leaves.

Without threat or violence, he came before the being in control of the territory and presented his suit.

"I have come for Dean Winchester," Castiel declared.

It spoke without the words of Man and the sounds it made caused the trees to tremble and the waters to roil.

 **I am Circle of Moon and Water, daughter of Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ. Dean Winchester came to me of his own accord. He is for my daughter.**

"Is that why you have taken the children of the towns?" Castiel asked.

 **They were unwanted. They were hurt. They were happy to be called mine. We had lords and ladies for consorts when we were born, but my own children must make do.**

"Dean Winchester is not for you or your child, daughter of the Dragon Prince. Give him over. Now." Castiel backed up his words and their inherent threat by gathering his grace and power about him, filling the space around him with the thunder and fire of an angel primed for battle.

 **You will not kill me. My brothers and sisters would hunt you, kill you and take him. You cannot fight so many wars, little spirit. You wane and shrink with every moment, like the darkening moon. I can see it happening. Waters run swiftly and come again to the same place a hundred thousand times, never the same. We must all change, even your kind. I will give you your hunter, little spirit, but I will keep the rest of my children. They will be happier.**

Castiel paused before agreeing. It would be so easy, but Dean, Dean would not let such a bargain stand if there were lives in danger. "I will have your word first, that you did not steal those children maliciously."

 **There was no one to miss them and no one cared. Surely, being married to water and air is a kinder fate? Take your hunter. Do not return.**

Castiel rushed forward and Dean rose from bubbling water, still and silent. He moved to pull Dean out and he came awake with heaving gasps and coughs as soon as Castiel touched him.

"Cas? Wha? Giant turtle?" Dean asked in tones of gratitude and confusion in between wheezing pants for air.

"It has been taken care of," Castiel said before he transported them to the motel.

\----

Dean started arguing as soon as they arrived; as if he hadn't been struggling for air minutes before. "Nu-uh. No way. You got some 'splaining to do. Why the hell was there a giant, talking turtle in the middle of Florida? Why didn't you answer my phone calls? And did you leave my baby out next to that goddamned swamp? "

Castiel did not correct Dean's use of the past tense. It was better for him to think that Circle of Moon and Water had been killed lest he do something predictably foolhardy and go out into the swamp again.

"It does not matter, Dean," Castiel said. "You must rest. You were almost—"

"I was almost what, Cas?"

"Married. She wanted a son-in-law."

"A son—ha-ha, very funny. You're kidding, right? Right, Cas? You're not. Fuck, I need a drink and a burger. How long was I in that fucking swamp? No, don't tell me. All right, let's go get my baby, get out of this shit town, and find a bar. Don't give me that look, Cas. I was almost married to a goddamned turtle. Fuck. You'd better not tell Sam about any of this crap. Got it?"

"Got it."


End file.
